<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>This article explores synergies between Hungarian critical sociology in the 1960–70s and the documentary films made in Balázs Béla Stúdió in the same period. It treats the rationalization of social phenomena as a battle ground for meaning and claims that both representatives of the social sciences and filmmakers, on the one hand, called upon deficient social mechanisms and the inner contradictions of existing socialism and, on the other hand, pointed to the discrepancy between ideological and empirical perceptions of reality as the root cause of the crisis characterizing the consolidated Kádár regime. Adopting Clifford Geertz’s conceptual matrix of the experience-near and the experience-distant production of social meaningfulness, the article explores how sociologists and makers of sociographic documentaries alike resisted the prevailing epistemic regime, more specifically how they punctured and undermined the ideological meanings of such concepts as maternity, the Romani, and cooperative democracy.<sup>1</sup></p>
</abstract>

This article explores synergies between Hungarian critical sociology in the 1960–70s and the documentary films made in Balázs Béla Stúdió in the same period. It treats the rationalization of social phenomena as a battle ground for meaning and claims that both representatives of the social sciences and filmmakers, on the one hand, called upon deficient social mechanisms and the inner contradictions of existing socialism and, on the other hand, pointed to the discrepancy between ideological and empirical perceptions of reality as the root cause of the crisis characterizing the consolidated Kádár regime. Adopting Clifford Geertz’s conceptual matrix of the experience-near and the experience-distant production of social meaningfulness, the article explores how sociologists and makers of sociographic documentaries alike resisted the prevailing epistemic regime, more specifically how they punctured and undermined the ideological meanings of such concepts as maternity, the Romani, and cooperative democracy.1

Crisis, Sociology and Agency in 1970s Hungarian Documentary Cinema

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Crisis, Sociology and Agency in 1970s Hungarian Documentary Cinema"}

This article explores synergies between Hungarian critical sociology in the 1960–70s and the documentary films made in Balázs Béla Stúdió in the same period....

Crisis, Sociology and Agency in 1970s Hungarian Documentary Cinema

Published Online: Aug 05, 2022

Page range: 146 - 170

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2022-0006

Keywords
crisis, Kádár-regime, sociology, Hungarian sociological documentary cinema, episteme, agency

© 2022 Zsolt Győri, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Crisis, Sociology and Agency in 1970s Hungarian Documentary Cinema

Published Online: Aug 05, 2022

Page range: 146 - 170

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2022-0006

Keywordscrisis, Kádár-regime, sociology, Hungarian sociological documentary cinema, episteme, agency

© 2022 Zsolt Győri, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
crisis, Kádár-regime, sociology, Hungarian sociological documentary cinema, episteme, agency